Through Time and Space – Virtual Reality at Encounters
“You might find some of these experiences particularly nauseating,” our guide warned us, as she passed out goggles and headphones. “If you feel uncomfortable we advise that the best thing is to just shut your eyes until it passes.”
It was with some anxiety that I sat down to watch Through Time and Space, a collection of virtual reality (VR) films and animations showing at Limina VR Space as part of Bristol’s Encounters Film Festival. I had never so much as worn a VR headset before, and I had no idea what to expect. Several friends had warned me that I would be underwhelmed, citing distracting technical blips and the aforementioned nausea as factors that made it difficult to suspend disbelief for the duration of a film.
ARIPI (Dir. Dmitri Voloshin)
On the whole, however, the works on display in Through Time and Space demonstrated a high level of technical and creative prowess in this challenging new medium. Together, the five works made up one of three loosely connected VR programmes showcasing works competing for the 2019 Immersive Encounters Grand Prix. They were a mixed bag in every sense, some long, some short, created by teams from all over the world. Some had a clear, linear narrative, while others were vignettes of only a few minutes. ARIPI (dir. Dmitri Voloshin), for example, follows the structure and duration of a short film, while Julian Gallese’s Banana Bread is described as a ‘video installation’ and lasts only two minutes. When combined, the five pieces formed a kaleidoscopic mashup of genre and medium, drawing together elements of animation, live-action film, new media art, documentary and gaming to create something that felt quite unique.
Beyond the novelty of the medium, however, some of the pieces on display, while entertaining, would have worked just as well (if not better) as conventional short films or animations. For example, Your Spiritual Temple Sucks (dir. John Hsu), was an enjoyable, relatable pastiche on the cult of change from within. However, the narrative was sufficiently linear that little depth would have been lost if the viewer had played the story through as a video game or watched it on a cinema screen. That said, there is something refreshing about experiencing art in a medium in which conventions have not yet been ironed out and nailed down, even if one result is that VR works are still overly reliant on existing media forms.
From a technical perspective, the aspect of the VR viewing experience which I found the most extraordinary was the presence of vertical space. Both When Something Happens (dir. Andrew McHugh) and Tops of Space (dir. Jialiang Liu) made wonderful use of being able to move in three dimensions, creating beautiful dreamscapes stretching away in every direction. Tops of Memory, created at Musashino Art University in Japan, was especially fascinating as an exploration of VR space as an extension of the traditional visual art canvas: it demonstrated that hand-drawn animation can and has successfully made the leap into this new medium.
Meanwhile, When Something Happens gave an insight into the educational capabilities of VR, offering viewers a breathtaking tour of the universe from before the Big Bang through to the present day, powerfully narrated by poet Boston ‘The Orator’ Williams. Unfortunately, however, this heady three-dimensional environment also brought with it the promised motion sickness. I had to reluctantly remove my headset a few times and take a breather before returning to the works themselves, which slightly spoiled the overall experience.
When Something Happens (Boom Clap Play)
However, the fact that VR technology is still in its infancy did not negate the creativity and potential on display in these immersive encounters with a new technology. Many industry experts have observed that an openness to failed experiments is key to the successful development of new media forms, especially VR and augmented reality. Even a visually underwhelming or jarring VR project is likely to have required far more technical and creative innovation than the average film of the same length. Through Time and Space gave a compelling overview of five works pushing back the frontiers of visual media. It will be exciting to witness the development of VR technology and experiences over the coming years.